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“Fuck’s sake,” Gabriel muttered.
He was going to do what he needed to, but Gabriel was clearly agitated. Lily knew he was thinking about Lucas still. How could he not?
“Lily, stay between us. Walk behind me. Levi, Frederic, stay behind her. Keep your eyes and ears open.”
All four of them clicked on their flashlights, flooding the cave with blinding streams of artificial light. Gabriel led the way, moving steadily but carefully, intermittently checking in on Lily as they progressed their way through various weavings of tunnels.
Lily was able to move effortlessly, but the shifters had to hunch over and forcibly shrink their big, burly bodies in order to squeeze through a few sections that were awkwardly tight. It seemed to be growing more narrow, so Lily gave Gabriel’s hand a tug to get his attention.
“Hmm?”
“How far are we from the site?” she asked.
They stopped moving, enveloped in a strange silence, dripping dew their only accompaniment. Gabriel pulled out the blueprint and brought it close to his face. He looked slightly comical standing there, bent over nearly ninety degrees like some hunchback.
“Not far, maybe five yards or so. Why? What are you thinking?”
“I am smaller than all of you,” Lily said. “I can slip in and out without any risk of getting stuck. I think that's a better plan.”
Gabriel scoffed, then peered over his shoulder. She was rather slender and malleable and could easily work her way a few meters down to find the relic. She also wanted to help. She felt like she needed to help.
“All right,” Gabriel said, pursing his lips reluctantly. “You go ahead of us. And for the record, if we get stuck, we would just break through the rock.”
Lily rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. His pride was nearly impenetrable, but not completely.
He handed her the blueprint and told her where it would most likely reside. Wedged beneath some stone under a dried-out waterfall.
“It might be glowing green,” Gabriel said when she slipped under his arm and past him. “It looks like a piece from a lantern. It could be a case, or it could be a bulb. I’m not sure.”
Lily held her flashlight in one hand and shoved the blueprint into her pants. She began to thread her way through the tunnels.
It wasn't difficult, just as she thought. It required some flexibility and forethought, but neither of those were issues she suffered with. She quickly arrived at an opening, wiped off some of the rocky residue, and shone her light into the air.
“You okay?” Gabriel beckoned.
“Yeah,” she yelled back, her voice echoing in the cavern. “I think I found the waterfall.”
It was just as the blueprint had depicted. The waterfall had dried out, leaving glossy stone plating that ran nearly a hundred yards ahead of her, then lost itself in the midst of the hollow. Lily moved quickly, running her light along the crevices until she found exactly what she was looking for.
She gasped aloud. Gabriel had been right. It glowed like one of the radiant fireflies that had lit their path.
She knelt and slipped her slim fingers between the plating of stone, then eased out the object, gripping it between her middle and pointer finger. She slid it out, balancing it between the fingers that were starting to cramp, then benevolently placed it in the palm of her hand.
It was a bulb of some kind, the size of a beetle. It hummed in the soundlessness of the cave, a fully alive thing that had the potential to eradicate a species.
It gave Lily an uncanny feeling. Who knew something so beautiful could be capable of such atrocities?
“Lily!”
Gabriel’s howl shattered Lily's curious musings, and she rose to her feet with alarm.
“Gabriel?” she bellowed back.
“Stay there! The humans are attacking!”
There was no way in hell she was going to stay back. She slipped the bulb into her pocket and ran for the tunnels, moving faster and more fluidly than she had thought she was capable of.
They weren’t far from her. She could hear the snarling of tigers cascading in her direction. She moved like a gymnast, knowing they had all shifted and were defending themselves just outside the opening of the cave.
